Saturday, April 28, 2012

7 years of blogging

Since I started doing this in April 2005 I have written 3500 posts that that have had over 15,000 comments. Depending on what stat tracker you look at there have been at least 800.000 unique visitors with over 2 million page views. If I hadn't taken a break for a few months those numbers would be higher. All I can say is Thank You.

I have had a lot of support in this endeavor. Many thanks to my blog buddies, the local newspapers, candidates, readers, commenters and guest posters. Since I started this there must have been around 200 sites that popped up devoted to
local politics that disappeared after a short time. We have a hard core of
people that have toughed it out that keep tapping away.. Forgive me for not linking to you all but I'm sure I would
omit someone. See the sidebar.

We are truly fortunate to have a couple of
local newspapers with great reporters that give us fodder to write about
everyday. W-B/Scranton is one of the few markets left in
the USA with competing papers. I have occasionally broke a story but our local
press do it everyday.

Of course I couldn't do this without the encouragement/tolerance of Mrs.G who initially wasn't thrilled with the time I was spending online and going to political events but then told me to start blogging again when I was on hiatus. I don't write about all the things I want to because of time I have to waste doing things like making a living, taking care of our family and properties. It's a hobby and I refuse to put
advertising on the site so I don't make any money from it not that anyone can
actually make a living writing about local politics on the Internet.

One of the neat things is that this little Blog in Northeastern PA is now recognized as a news outlet. Candidates reach out to me me and the other local bloggers sending us press releases, calling us on the phone and even have staffers that are devoted to internet outreach. A couple of press secretaries became my BFF.

We have also expanded beyond the virtual world hosting Blogfest where politco's of all stripes can get together in an informal atmosphere. Since it's inception 2 years ago Blogfest has been described as the best
political event of the season. No speeches are allowed and the rule is agree to
disagree but don't be disagreeable.